Interactive voice response system with prioritized call monitoring

Abstract

The present invention enables service agents in a call center to monitor portions of calls that are especially error-prone (e.g., automated speech recognition of an address, etc.), while portions of calls that are not error-prone occur without any human monitoring. An interactive voice response (IVR) system script (e.g., a VXML script, etc.) is divided into a plurality of independent dialog sequences, each of which is assigned a human-monitoring requirement that indicates whether (and optionally, to what degree) the dialog sequence requires monitoring by a service agent. In addition, instances of the dialog sequences in calls are prioritized based on an indication of caller intelligibility during (i) prior dialog sequences in the current call, and (ii) prior calls involving the same caller and / or the same contact identifier (e.g., telephone number, email address, Internet Protocol address, etc.).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 107,673, filed 15 Apr. 2005 (now pending), entitled “Interactive Voice Response System With Partial Human Monitoring” which is incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to telecommunications in general, and, more particularly, to an interactive voice response system that enables partial human monitoring of calls.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]A call center is a place where calls from users, such as customers, are handled in support of an organization's activities. Organizations that provide a call center, such as companies that offer a service or a product, do so to provide assistance and information to customers of the service or product. A call center typically comprises an interactive voice response (IVR) system that enables a caller to obtain information without any human involvement, or to speak to a person kn...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]In the second illustrative embodiment of the present invention, each dialog sequences that requires human monitoring is recorded and packaged into an agent-review task, which is subsequently sent to an available service agent for review. The agent-review task also contains the automated speech recognition (ASR) for the dialog sequence, thus enabling the service agent to check for any errors and make any necessary corrections.

[0018]By enabling service agents to monitor or review only the error-prone portions of calls, and by prioritizing calls based on an indication of prior caller intelligibility, both illustrative embodiments enable a call center to function with fewer service agents.

Problems solved by technology

A problem with interactive voice response (IVR) systems is that automated speech recognition (ASR) is typically very accurate for some inputs such as zip code and social security number, but can be much less accurate for others such as name, street address, etc.

If service agents monitor each call, however, the economic advantage of using an interactive voice response (IVR) system is greatly diminished.

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